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VerPlanck was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey.[3][1] Her father, Anthony J. Pampinella (1908–1993),[4] operated a gasoline station there, and her mother, Pauline A. Biase (1913–2008),[5] whose family ran an Italian restaurant.[3][6] She married trombonist, composer, and arranger J. William "Billy" VerPlanck (1930–2009) in 1955, and he became her musical collaborator and champion.[3] They were married for 52 years, until his death in 2009.[3][1][7]

VerPlanck was a prolific studio vocalist for commercial jingles during the 1960s and 1970s, and by the 1960s became known as the "New York jingle queen."[3] She recorded thousands of jingles, often for low pay, although her fortunes changed when she sang an arrangement of the 1930s Campbell's Soup "M'm M'm Good" song, which became widely known.[1][12][3] Other notable jingles she recorded included "Nationwide is on your side" for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and "Weekends were made for Michelob" for Anheuser-Busch′s Michelob beer. She later told the press that the latter was highly lucrative for her, because she put a "Yeah!" at the end of the jingle that was used over and over again in versions of the jingle recorded by Billy Eckstine, Vic Damone, and Brook Benton, earning her continued royalties. Her jingle work allowed her to hone the clarity of her diction when singing, and she became known for her ability to enunciate the lyrics of songs clearly even while investing them with emotion.[3] Although she toiled largely in obscurity, her voice became widely known to millions of people during the 1960s and 1970s through the familiarity and popularity of her jingles.[3]

In January 1983, VerPlanck took part in recording In the Digital Mood, an early all-digital recording of the music of Glenn Miller by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The album included two vocal tracks – "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", and VerPlanck was invited to sing the female vocals in a recreation of the singing group The Modernaires, which consisted of one female and four male vocalists, and to bring four male colleagues with her to sing the four male vocal parts. The album's producers expected her to bring unknown session and back-up singers with her, but she surprised and delighted the producers and the orchestra by arriving with Julius LaRosa, Mel Torme, Michael Mark, and Marty Nelson for the recording session on January 20, 1983.[13]